Yes, but really any game (as I’d like to think!), it boils down to how well the goalkeeper at each end performs. The more goals one of them allows, the more likely their team is to lose, obviously! Ultimately, it’s a battle between the goalkeepers. In order to perform to our optimum best, we goalies need to focus on keeping our emotions in check, sufficiently capable of managing things internally to get through the game with our sanity intact!Ī game is essentially down to how the goalkeeper performs, at each end of the pitch. Our temperament needs to be more lucid and calm, able to withstand the hardships of a goalkeeper and the things that ‘do our head in’, enough to play to our best. Whereas our team mates might feel the highs of a goal scored or the lows and disgruntlement of a goal being allowed, our position and the way we deal with the stresses and pressure of the role is a hard task, with ‘our backs up against the wall’ and ‘up against it’ as they say.
But these things can and will impact our game if we let them, and it’s important to recognise this when playing in between the posts. One thing that isn’t always considered when delving into the complexities of the psychological impact of our ‘mental game’ on the way we play, is how we balance the emotions that we feel the ups and downs, especially within a game where the ability to do so is pretty important and essential to our chances of a comeback say and ‘keeping our team in it’. I know it’s not the coldest place in the world (I’ve seen some awesome pictures of Canadian hockey goalies – I think they were – warming up outside in the snow!) but it can never make its mind up, so those dreary, cold and wet days when you’re playing in the damp that can get through your kit and the chill that gets to your bones, it’s handy to have something to keep you warm! Pretty useful, “killing two birds with one stone as the phrase goes”, goalkeeping wise! I currently have a pair of thermals that I also wear when skiing or maybe, eventually, snowboarding (if and when I get the rare opportunity to do some snow sports!) that are a pretty quality set that also wick away sweat, for warming the legs! Personally, I’m not a fan of British weather. In fact, there are some thermals that do that as well, so you can get rid of built up sweat (as you play well and build up a sweat, as they say in ice hockey, “working up a sweat out on the ice”!) and stay warm at the same time. With taping, it essentially forces the foam into the bend that you need for that bending motion for save making whilst wearing the arm pads.Īlong with baselayers, which are great for wicking away sweat as I’ve written about some time back, thermals can be pretty useful when playing in the winter months (whichever side of the globe you’re on, the earth spins on an axis after all!). Some electrical tape taped around the arm pad in this way, will help to keep the pad together and give important movement as stated. The tape helps hold the inner bicep protection in place for the newer range of Obo pads, whilst at the same time also helping keeping that bend at the joint for all important flexibility for those instantaneous reflex saves.
A simple but effective tip for those arm pad wearers out there, who use the removable Obo pads (which also give you more set-up options, if you think about it versus attached ones sewn into the body armour!), more specifically, is to tape them! With the design of the elbow pad that goes around the bone, rather than a hard shell fixed in place, you will see a lot of Obo arm pad users taping their pads to ensure the pad stays fixed in place and gives more flexibility when bending at the joint for those glove saves nearer the body.